Maria Michta-Coffey solidified her spot on the Team USA roster for the Track & Field World Championships this summer in Eugene, Oregon.
Maria Michta-Coffey solidified her spot on the USA roster to represent Team USA at the World Championships for Track and Field this summer in Eugene, Oregon. The 36 year old Long Island native will be racing in her sixth and likely last World Championships. Michta-Coffey is no stranger to success and has consistently had strong international races placing as high as 20th in the World, her worst finish was 35th in 2019 when she was just 4 months postpartum with her daughter Liliana. At the time Michta-Coffey was also juggling a demanding schedule in PA School. Fast forward now to 2022 where Michta-Coffey, who is not only a Mom, is also a full time physician assistant at South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore. She also holds a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai where she studied the hepatitis C virus. This January, in the height of the Omicron surge, she managed to take a weekend off from battling COVID to fly out to the west coast where she qualified for the World Champs by virtue of her top 3 finish at the National 35k Championships in Santee, California which served as the USATF selection event. In her debut race at the distance she managed to hold onto a top 60 World Athletics Ranking List spot, guaranteeing her selection to the USA Team. Michta-Coffey is set to race the 35k race walk on Friday, July 22nd and is beyond thrilled to be representing Long Island and all of the USA one more time on the World stage, this time on home soil and being cheered on by her newest fan, Liliana!